Mexico leader looks for G20 financial checks

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, the current G20 chair, called Monday for stricter rules for financial institutions, underlining their shared responsibility in the economic crisis. "Those who grant credit, the banks and the financial institutions, also have to assume those losses" created by debt problems in countries such as Greece, Calderon told senior officials from the G20 nations. "A good part of this crisis originates in erroneous decisions and excessive and abusive risk-taking by private and public financial institutions," added Calderon, whose country currently presides the G20 group of major developed and developing nations. Senior officials from the G20, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are holding two days of informal talks in the Mexican resort of Los Cabos ahead of a full summit there in June. However, only nine foreign ministers are taking part in the talks. Russia, China, India and Brazil, which lead the important bloc of emerging economies, are not represented at the ministerial level. G20 finance ministers and central bank heads were also due to meet in Mexico City next weekend to discuss ways to increase funding for the International Monetary Fund in the face of Europe's debt crisis.